“When is $9 billion not enough? Well, let’s not kid ourselves, $9 billion is never really not enough,” Paul Vigna reports for The Wall Street Journal. “One particular cache of billions, though, may be the key to whether or not the so-called earnings recession ends or not.”

“The earnings calendar is clogged this week, with 179 of the S&P 500′s companies reporting. That’s the equivalent of 38.3% of the index’s market value, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices’ Howard Silverblatt,” Vigna reports. “Among that group are 14 of the index’s $100-billion-plus market cap names, including Alphabet, Visa Inc., Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola Co., 3M, and Amazon.com.”

“And Apple,” Vigna reports. “Normally, that would be a good thing. Apple is, after all, a company that regularly posts multi-billion profits, quarter after quarter. It will do so again this quarter as well. The problem, however, is that those multi-billion quarters are getting smaller, not larger. In fact, Apple alone may be extending the S&P 500′s ‘“earnings recession.'”

“Street consensus for the company’s earnings per share is $1.66,” Vigna reports. “The problem is that $1.66 profit is down substantially from a year ago. In last year’s third quarter, Apple earned $1.96 a share. That would make Apple the largest drag on earning growth among tech companies in the S&P 500, according to FactSet’s John Butters.”

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8 Comments

As an Apple shareholder I’m already prepared for Apple’s share price drop while Amazon and Alphabet continue to soar thanks to Tim Cook’s incompetence. Apple is the only company where the daily news is YoY decline and first annual revenue decline since 2001. Nothing like that was heard for Amazon or Alphabet. They only had good news of how their unlimited growth potential would continue for the next few years and beyond. Somehow those companies managed to make long-term preparations for the future but Tim Cook never got the message.

I can only hope Apple’s share price doesn’t end up looking like Under Armour, another company that claims they’re doing everything right. The thing is, Apple has no real excuse. They’d been warned over and over about relying on iPhone sales. Apple had been sitting on a mountain of cash to use to bolster future revenue. They knew the dividends and the buybacks weren’t working to help attract the big investors.

Every move Amazon does makes Jeff Bezos look like a genius. Every move Apple does makes Tim Cook look like a dunce. What are the odds of that happening year after year? Those odds should be small but continue to loom larger every quarter.

I’m getting my Apple dividends so it’s not a total loss for me. I’m just somewhat puzzled how Apple can’t find a solution that most major tech companies managed to find in having a strong cloud business.

Tim Cook is indeed totally over his head running Apple. He is by far, THE least interesting CEO of a tech company. He has nothing interesting to say. He has nothing interesting to offer shareholders or customers. Apple needs to get past Tim Cook as quickly as possible so that innovation can once again flourish.

Apple is indeed sitting on an unprecedented mountain of money, but what good is it doing??
Maps? It’s 4 years old and still no exit numbers, still far behind google in detail, still directing me to destinations 900 miles away because I did not say the exact right town name.
Mail? It is still a dog, lacking proper features such as rules that actually work, etc.
Siri? She is getting dumber, not smarter. “I don’t know what you mean….” and “I found this on the web…” being her two most common replies unless you’re setting a timer or a reminder.
iTunes? Haha, no need to even go into detail there.

So what exactly is Cook doing with all that wealth?
Fighting to make sure we all think homosexuality is beneficial?? Placating communist China by buying ride share companies??
Making sure professional users move to Windows??